Gibson Mastertone GB-3 Model Guitar Banjo (1926), made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, brown lacquer finish, laminated maple rim and resonator; maple neck with ebony fingerboard, original black hard shell case.
Here's one of Gibson's most elusive creations: the 6-string Mastertone banjo. This is an extremely rare instrument, even more so than the earlier "trap door"-style guitar banjos built prior to 1925. This one was made around the end of 1925 or early 1926, one of a very few batches of these ever completed. This is a full Mastertone rim, equivalent to the TB-3 from the same year with a two-piece tube-and-plate flange and spring loaded ball-bearing archtop tone ring.
The neck is a substantial round-backed affair with a bound, dot-inlaid ebony fingerboard and a guitar-shaped headstock with "The Gibson" inlaid in pearl script and 6 tabbed Grover tuners. Seminal early country fingerpicker Sam McGee used one of these GB-3's to back Uncle Dave Macon live and on disc and recorded several of his most famous pieces with it, while in more recent years this model is associated with Neil Young. One of the coolest Gibson rarities and best banjo-guitars extant, this is the finest surviving example we have ever seen.
Overall length is 36 3/8 in. (92.4 cm.), 11 in. (27.9 cm.) diameter head, and 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 in. (635 mm.). Width of nut is 1 13/16 in. (46 mm.).
Extremely fine original condition; all hardware complete and intact. Set up with an old (possibly original) skin head, maple bridge, and old Gibson monel strings. A real time capsule, in a beautifully preserved original case with the original key, wrench, and one period Gibson string packet. Excellent + Condition.
